Gone, But Not Forgotten
by RadFoxUK
Summary: Sam and Lonnie get in contact with Sam's family twenty years down the line in 2015.


(A/N: I considered making Sam pregnant through invitro and donor here but chose not to.)

 **Gone, But Not Forgotten**

"Lonnie?"

"Yes?" I reply.

"Can you come here please?"

"Coming!"

I rush into the living room, to see Sam in her house sweats and long T-shirt. Trying, and failing, to relax on the couch.

"I'm gonna contact her." She says as she sits up to let me sit next to her, her head on my shoulder my hand stroking her thigh.

"You sure?"

"No, but I think I have to."

"Okay, you found her then?"

"Yeah, well no I found Mom, she's going by her maiden name."

"She left your Dad?"

"I think so… but I'm not sure…"

"Hello?"

"Mom?"

"Sam!?"

"Yeah Mom it's me." I reply, dread in my voice.

"Where are you?"

"Uh…"

"Honey, it's okay, I know about Lonnie and you. Are you still together?"

"Yeah, we're uh… Married." I answer with a chuckle, clutching desperately to Lonnie's hand.

She gasps on the other end of the line, an excited gasp no disgust or surprise in it but joy. I can't help but grin like a crazy cat lady. "Please tell me you have photos!?"

"Yeah, we do, here I'll add you on Facebook, they're all up there!"

"Honey there's something you need to know… But I need to speak to you in person, It'd be best if you came here. I'll cover the expenses!"

"One sec Mom I gotta talk it over with Lonnie."

"What do you need to talk over with me?"

"Mom says she has to speak to me, us in person, that it's best if we come to her…"

"Okay!" Lonnie interrupts, no questions asked, just trust and support.

"Mom? Lonnie said okay…"

"Really? That was fast, you don't even know where I am…"

"She's like that Mom, I'm like that, we support each other, I supported her music and she supports my writing."

"You write… Never mind I'm in Boston, Katie's here too, she's one of the reasons you need to be here." A hint of sadness to her voice.

"Mom, what's wrong?"

"I can't say till you get here it wouldn't be right. I'm just glad you called sooner than later."

Mom's behind the barrier when we get closer to the airport's exit.

"Mom!" "Sam!" We yell to each other at the same time, I squeeze Lonnie's hand before letting go to run over and bear hug her, lifting her off the ground.

"It's been so long." She says, both of us crying.

"I know!" I reply in a whisper.

She lets me go to walk over to Lonnie, I tense for a second when Mom swats away Lonnie's out stretched hand.

But after a tense half second, she engulfs Lonnie in a huge hug, big enough to rival my own, laughing.

I let out a sigh and nearly collapse to the ground in relief.

Come on, come on let's get to the taxi Mom says grabbing the wheeled luggage from Lonnie's hands and storming to the exit.

I look to my wife as she looks at me, we both crack up we hold hands, Lonnie picking up my bag and hefting it over her shoulder as we jog after my Mom.

When we get to the hotel room, Mom had tried and failed to get us to room with her (The guest room.) but we'd declared our need for our own space.

"Well I'll leave you two till tomorrow after breakfast, I'll meet you here in the room at one?" She asks.

"We'll handle all the 'drama' (Air quotes included, earning her a snort and smirk from Lonnie.) tomorrow, okay?" She continues before I can answer.

"Sure Mom, we'll talk tomorrow." Although well-hidden, Lonnie notices my, our exhaustion and waves with me as the doors close on the elevator.

"I know I'm stalling but I'm scared to tell you what's going on, just know everything's alright!"

"I just want it to be a surprise, I know it's not a good idea with you in this condition but I think you'll be happy when you see the surprise tomorrow!"

"Okay Mom, I'm gonna trust you on this" I answer.

"I'm feeling tired so I'm gonna hang up and go to bed, bye Mom"

"Okay dear, I'll see you tomorrow, get a good night's sleep! Bye!"

"I'll get it!" I yell to Sam.

I'm engulfed in a tight hug as soon as I open the door.

"Not who I was expecting but I don't really care, where's Sam? The shower?"

"Yeah I spilled some ice tea on her. So, she's gonna be in there for at least another 5 minutes, wanna talk?"

"Sure." She says if not a little hesitantly.

I motion to the bed and take the uncomfortable chair from the corner to sit on.

"So, what's on the agenda for today?" I ask.

"Well, if you promise not to ruin the surprise I'll tell you."

"Okay."

"No, I need your word. Sorry."

"I swear on our future children's lives I won't tell Sam, so give it up what's happening?"

"You didn't need to go that far but sure."

"Well?"

"We're going to lunch for two o'clock."

"Aaaaaaaaaand?"

She looks to the door, doing a double check before calling me over and leaning in.

"We're gonna meet Katie." She whispers.

"What?!" I reply a little too loudly.

She covers my mouth when she nods.

"So, you two are already conspiring against me I see…"

We jump a part and I go back to the chair opposite Sam's Mom.

"Well?" she asks as she gets dressed in a yellow sundress.

"It's nothing you won't find out when we got to lunch at quarter to." I tell her as she comes and sits in my lap.

Arm going 'round my shoulder and a kiss in my hair, inhaling my scent. She eyes us for a moment before shrugging.

"Well since that's off limits for now, how about you tell me why you're going by Maple again Mom?"

She looks to the floor before answering. "We divorced not long after you came out, it's not the whole reason but it's at least a third of it. The second, as you know somewhat, is that we were cheating on each other."

"I knew about you but not Dad…"

"He'd been the first to dally out of matrimony, I caught him going at it with a little skank, it was that week where I didn't cook. I never told him I knew till the divorce but I learned in that week that it'd been going on for a while."

"How long."

"Years."

"Why'd you agree to the Anniversary trip?"

"I'd already been to a lawyer and had all the paperwork set up, ready to be signed. I was going to spring it on him, pretend to be happy, do things together for a week then smash it all, like a blackened mirror when we got home, he'd wake up to find the bed cold and, you and me gone with the papers on the dinner table."

I couldn't help it, I laughed, and so did Sam's mom, Sam joined in a moment later.

"But, Katie had returned the night before we returned ourselves, uncovered everything, when your Dad went on a rage fuelled tangent about 'correction camps' I slapped him, split his cheek, he hadn't noticed me reverse my engagement ring until it was too late!" She continued, chuckling.

"And?"

"I told him to leave and not return for a few days. Once he'd left I talked with Katie, explained all this to her, she laughed too, told me everything in return showed me all the little nooks and crannies you'd found, she told me some of the diary's contents, but said she'd promised you not to show either of us."

"You, didn't agree with Dad…"

"I never had, but I was oblivious to a few things namely how serious you two were." Sam stroked my arm with her arm around my shoulders and I smiled up at her.

"So, I'd kept my mouth shut and bided my time collecting evidence and the like. If I was going to leave your father, I'd leave him with nothing, alone and crushed. Neither of you kids knew this but I'd been the one to finance his books, I'd worked my butt off to help him, comforted him in his trials and errors and what did he do? Screw a girl, and I mean a girl, she was still in High School for fucks sake! On the desk, I bought for him in our first year of marriage!"

"Sorry…"

"Why're you apologising? Wasn't your fault!"

After a moment, wherein I got us some drinks from room-service, Sam asks a question.

"What about Richard?"

"What about him… Oh, you think." She couldn't continue, she laughed herself silly.

"Richard's GAY!" She cracked up but controlled herself.

"I meant emotionally cheated on him, we never did more than hug! And I certainly don't think Jeremy'd appreciate it if I turned him to the 'dark side'!" (Air quotes.)

"But what about the wedding and his wife?!"

"It was a code! It meant the papers would be ready."

"What!?"

"His partner, husband now, Jeremy was my divorce lawyer!"

None of us could help it, we collapsed in hysterics.

"Oh! Come on, get up, it's time to go!" Sam's mom exclaimed.

"Oh, and Lonnie, call me Jan!"

Soooooooo… Sam's back, well, not as soon as I'd hoped but.

But what can you do? That's life, 'C'est La Vie', 'That's life Jim' and all that.

You know when it all went down back in '95, I'd already had a bit of a shitty week… first your boyfriend leaves you by a phone call not even a minute long, then you wind up 'ill' which goes on for a week and finally that illness turns out to be a pregnancy!

Thank god for the NHS 'cause I doubt I'd have wasted the money checking out a 'stomach-bug' if the brit I was rooming with hadn't persuaded me by offering to cover any costs billed up.

I'd also like to thank god for worriers, 'cause I honestly was just annoyed. Lynn was the one who had worried for almost a week if I was dying… Her incessant nagging was just more annoying than any cons of going.

Must remember to give her that thank you stuff again this year… Wander if she'll take it?

No, later, have enough to think about right now.

"Katie?"

"Huh?"

"Hi?"

I turn to see none other than my – not so – little sister sitting opposite me in the booth, my Mom and Lonnie are off to the side, towards the front of the diner.

"So… this is awkward, isn't it?"

"Quite."

Oh, who am I kidding?!

I jump up out of the booth and draw Sam into a deep hug.

"It's so good to finally see you again!" I murmur to her, cracking up.

"Me too!"

After a few minutes of our embrace I remember the fifth person to our group.

"Kassie! Come over her please."

"Coming!" She calls out from the direction of the restrooms.

"I'd like you to meet someone!"

"Hi, I'm Kassie." She says when she reaches us. Shyly trying to hide behind me a bit but her curiosity defeats her some as she steps out a bit with a hand out offering a shake.

Finally getting a hold of herself Sam lowers herself and shakes Kassie's hand. "And who's this?"

"Well this is Kassie," I say grasping Kassie's shoulders. "My daughter."

To which Sam gasps, holding a hand to her mouth chewing her index finger a little.

"And how old is she?"

"Nine years old…"

Sam goes to say something, which I highly suspect would have been an apology of some sort.

"It's-"

"Nine and a quarter!"

Both me and Sam are more than a bit stunned, we crack up laughing a bit.

"So, who are you?"

"Kattie!" I cry scolding-ly.

"No, it's fine I never replied."

She turns back to Kattie, "I, am your mother's sister, so to you I'm your aunt Sammy."

"Why haven't I met you before now?"

"Well, I ran away from home…"

"But why?"

"Well, I didn't feel happy there."

I interrupt with, "You know how my dad wasn't a nice person? Right?"

"Yeah! He was mean to you when we went to talk to him!" She says angrily.

"Well he wasn't very kind about people who are different to him, people who weren't white, weren't straight and those who had different beliefs to him were talked badly about by him all the time."

"And I'm one of those people who's different to him."

Sam points behind her, "See that woman over there?"

"The one standing next to Gran?"

"Yeah her, that's Lonnie, my wife."

Kassie waves over at Lonnie.

"I ran away from home while your Mom, Katie, was on holiday in Europe."

"So, you weren't there when she got home?" She asks frowning.

"No I wasn't," She turns to me, "And I'm sorry for that."

"Why don't you go over and talk with Lonnie and Grandma?"

"Okay." She replies before scuttling off in their direction, they're sitting in another booth a bit aways and Kassie starts talking animatedly with them.

"So, when, who, why?"

"Kassie?"

Sam nods.

Tom broke up with me while I was in Europe just a phone call, barely a minute long…"

"And? 'Cause I know there's an 'and' and Tom was definitely not Hispanic…"

"Well I got drunk, and I still can't fully remember those three days afterwards…"

"So, when's her birthday?"

"November 30th 11:48pm 1996"

"So, that's why you came home a week early?"

"Yeah, I'd found out a month earlier, spent a month deciding what to do, finally decided I couldn't term-… or give her away."

"I'm, I can't… I am so, so sorry I wasn't there for you!" Sam says crying.

I reach out and grasp her hand, squeezing, "I never once blamed you, if anyone, I blamed Dad, but all I ever did was wish you were there."

"Well this is awkward…"

"Why?" Sam asks.

"Well I didn't have time to reschedule the dress shop."

"Dress shop, why are you going to a dress shop?"

"'Cause I'm getting married?" I reply eyebrow raised.

"You know, to Lynn the Brit' I was with when I found out about Kassie…"

"Mom!"

Sam yells at our Mother who has the sense to look a little sheepish.

The END!

Feels a little short I know, and I'm sorry about that, but I couldn't write a wedding scene if my life depended on it! (At least not one worth reading!)

Thank you to the one (First? [Crosses fingers.]) reviewer who gave me a reason to finish this! I honestly thought it was the best of my work so far, but not seeing any views or anything regarding it made me sad, and I didn't want to continue something no one was going to read so again thank you!

Hope you have a good day!


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